A CLINICO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF PAEDIATRIC LEPROSY IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

BACKGROUND Leprosy is a major public health problem in developing countries. India dominates the global picture with 60% of the world's leprosy cases. Although, the prevalence has fallen due to a combination of effective antibiotic therapy, incidence of leprosy remains stable with high rates of childhood cases. Aims and Objectives-The main objective of this study was to analyse the clinico-epidemiological features and prevalence of paediatric leprosy in our tertiary care centre. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study is a retrospective descriptive study, a hospital-based analytical study that includes 39 self-reporting patients of age group 3 - 15 years who attended the Dermatology OP for 1 year from March 2017 to February 2018 in our medical college situated in South India. A complete history and detailed cutaneous and peripheral nerve examination were carried out in all patients. Relevant investigations were done wherever necessary. RESULTS The study yielded 39 paediatric cases of leprosy. The age of childhood leprosy cases ranges from 3 - 12 years. There were 28 male children and 11 female children. Most of the cases were multibacillary type. Family history of leprosy was present in 11 cases and all the family members were of lepromatous leprosy type. CONCLUSION Data correlates with previous hospital-based prevalence studies of paediatric leprosy. The clinical, bacteriological and histopathological characteristics of leprosy cases in children, especially the high percentage of multibacillary cases evidently indicate the grave nature of the problem of undetected childhood leprosy, recent active transmission of disease in the community.